Our commentator seems to be like most Angelenos: she can't see the drought, so she doesn't believe in it. Plus, a new doc shows how auto racing shaped LA.
Will the NFL Rams play here again, or is Kroenke playing us?
LA's pro football fans got their hopes raised yet again this week. Whether they'll be dashed again is an open question. But a company tied to the owner of the St Louis Rams, Stan Kroenke, has purchased 60 acres in Inglewood.
Does this mean the Rams will move back to LA? Or is Kroenke just playing us and St Louis? Off-Ramp host John Rabe put the question to Doug Tribou of NPR's Only a Game.
John and Doug also talked about some definite good LA football news, and that is that Ray Guy, who spent his last five playing years on the LA Raiders, including the 1983 Super Bowl champs, was just elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
'Where They Raced' — New doc tells LA's forgotten auto racing history
Did you know 100,000 people showed up for a car race in Southern California … in 1913? And that Santa Monica – home today of the Prius and the pedestrian mall — might owe its existence to auto racing? Those are just two revelations in a new documentary called "Where They Raced," directed by Harry Pallenberg and based on the book of the same name by Harold Osmer, who hosts the film.
Auto racing and Los Angeles grew up together, shaped each other. Once, there were racetracks across the region, until humans pushed them out because of the noise and the crowds or, as in the case of Beverly Hills, the land became too valuable to use for racing.
Pallenberg is a minivan driver who says he didn't know any of this until he worked on an episode of "California's Gold" with the late, great Huell Howser that featured a segment on the Corona race, "and I was just blown away that 100,000 people would come out to a racetrack at 1913. That's, you know, like 20 percent of the population of the area showing up to an event."
Pallenberg says the city of Santa Monica used car racing to publicize itself nationally and to draw enough business and residents to bring in the tax revenue that would let it fight off incorporation attempts by the city of Los Angeles.
One of the beauties of "Where They Raced" is that it takes you to the sites of the various defunct racetracks — Exposition Park, Legion Ascot in El Sereno, a board track in Beverly Hills, to name a few — and shows you the traces of the old tracks. And in many cases, they do it with an antique car that actually raced there. You get to sit in the driver's seat and you can almost feel the wind in your hair and the motor oil blowing into your eyes.
Listen to our interview with Harry Pallenberg for much more on our shared history with auto racing.
"Where They Raced" has two LA screenings this month:
- Sunday, Feb. 9, 1 p.m., at the Automobile Driving Museum, where they'll give you a ride in a vintage car. Free screening and popcorn, with a $5 suggested donation. 610 Lairport Street, El Segundo, CA 90245, (310) 909-0950.
- Wednesday, Feb. 26, 7 p.m., at The Petersen Automotive Museum, where they'll be showing off several vintage race cars starting at 6pm. RSVP via 323-964-6370 or sscott@petersen.org. 6060 Wilshire Blvd. LA CA 90036, 323-930-CARS.
CORRECTION: In our audio interview, Harry Pallenberg gave the wrong dates for the Santa Monica races. They were held from 1909-1919, not 1913-1919.
Drought? What drought?
I used my windshield wipers when it rained this week. There can’t be a drought.
There are simply too many things we do on a daily basis that fly in the face of rationing water; water, which we treat like the pigeon of natural resources. Here’s an example. The main indoor use of water for the average house is … toilets. I checked the John in my apartment and every time I flush I’m using one gallon of water. That’s a low-flow toilet--one of the good guys--but I’m still using a milk jugs worth of water every time I answer a call from nature. How could we possibly live in a drought when our quote unquote “most precious resource” is something we literally poop on and then flush down the toilet?
Sure, options like compostable toilets have been around for 30 years, but how sexy does that sound? I mean, we’d have to be in a real bind to use a toilet that uses little to no water. We’d have to be seriously thinking about converting sea water. It’d have to get so bad that people who live in the places where we get our water would be having serious health problems--like chronic asthma--because of the dust. Wait, that’s already happened? I haven’t seen it; I don’t believe it.
(1978, Highland Park. LAPL/Shades of L.A.: Cuban American Community)
Want more proof? A typical lawn uses 10,000 gallons of water a year. 10,000 milk jugs! And if you think we irrigate responsibly – negative. The EPA says half the water we use outdoors is wasted. Half. And what’s not wasted goes to our precious lawns. Lawns need a lot of water, and we need lawns. How else are our front yards going to resemble an 18th century English garden? Just yesterday, my neighbor’s sprinklers were soaking his lawn at high noon, when the water evaporates before it hits the dirt, and guess what? Water came out of my taps this morning.
In fact, I took a two hour shower today because I felt like the one hour shower I took last night needed an encore. And I hosed down my driveway this morning because I just love the regal look of wet cement, just like in car commercials.
I don’t know about you, but the way to fix a problem I can’t see with my own eyes is to wait until I very much can see it, and then panic and say it’s God’s will.
And if we really do use up all the water around us like a trucker sucking down a Big Gulp, we can always move. After all, they say Detroit has more fresh water than any other major U.S. city, and as far as I’m concerned, they’re doing just fine.
In real life, Off-Ramp commentator Taylor Orci uses water wisely.
Foreign film Oscar candidate 'Gloria' explores singledom in Chile's clubs
For the smaller indie films, an Oscar nod gives the exposure that can bump ticket sales. But the competition's tough. Best Foreign Language Film only gets five slots compared to Best Picture's 10.
"Gloria," Chile's entry in the Best Foreign Language category, didn't make the cut, but it's worth adding to your pre-Oscars viewing list, as casual cinema-goers and film connoisseurs alike try to catch the Oscar-nominated films they missed.
From director Sebastian Lelio, "Gloria" tells the story of a middle-aged divorcée looking for love in Santiago's nightclubs.
Lelio says he was first intrigued by the interior life of mothers. "Usually the question is to the parent, 'Do you know what your children are doing?'" he said. "And (for 'Gloria') we made the same question but in the opposite direction."
Making "Gloria" also gave Lelio the chance to work with Paulina Garcia, a renowned Chilean theater director and playwright, who turns in an intimate performance as the film's title character. Lelio says he's admired Garcia for years. "I was always wondering why no one called her for a main role on a film, since she has this fantastic cinematic presence," he said.
Garcia's charming, tenacious performance helps elevate "Gloria" beyond a character study. "She should be like a secondary character in a normal film, but we felt compelled to prove that there was a fascinating, strong world around her." Jurors at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival felt the same way, awarding Garcia the Silver Bear for Best Actress.
Chile submitted "Gloria" in the Best Foreign Language pool. And though it ultimately didn't make the cut, Lelio still values the recognition. But accolades weren't Lelio's goal — he said he was honored to be submitted, but he can take or leave the Oscars. "When it happens, you have to go. When it doesn't, you follow with your work."
"Gloria" is now playing at The Landmark in LA, AMC Rolling Hills 20 in Torrance, and some Laemmle theaters.
Commentator Dylan Brody hereby kills his community theater career
I’m in a terrible, terrible production of an innocuous play.
I agreed to do a role in a play without asking nearly enough questions. So now I find myself in a community theater production of a light, contemporary American farce that has been directed as if it were an ancient Greek tragedy.
The primary directorial notes throughout the rehearsal process were, “Cheat out more,” by which the director actually meant, “Face the audience directly when speaking,” and, “Enunciate clearly,” by which the director meant, “Many of the theater’s subscribers are very old and don’t hear very well.”
The first 20 minutes of one performance were marred by the high-pitched tone of a hearing aid with a low battery, audible to everyone except its owner and, apparently, the play’s producer, who interrupted the flow of the play to make an announcement about the sound ... about three minutes after it had finally stopped.
My father used to say that community theater was a gathering of people doing a stellar imitation of what they thought acting on stage was supposed to look like. I see it a little differently. I think of community theater as live performances of slaughtered text before dying audiences.
Despite the flaws in the production, the geriatric crowds enjoy the show greatly. I seem to be a big hit with the 79- to 148-year-old female demographic.
While I think it is simple to understand how a modern play about the hilarities of complex familial relationships might be poorly served by actors who stand side by side on stage declaring their lines directly to their elderly audience, I do not feel I have fully expressed the extent to which this directorial choice has led us down a terrible path.
One of the key devices in this play is that one member of the ensemble is aware, from the beginning, of the audience. She takes on the role of narrator, interacting with the people in the house as casually and comfortably as if they were in her living room and not looking at a proscenium-framed version of it.
Naturally, such a device could play hilariously in contrast to naturalistic performances within the stage space as her family and colleagues interact with one another, and only she shows any awareness of the observers beyond that fourth wall.
Now imagine how muddy that contrast becomes when everyone in her life stares awkwardly out at those observers, only occasionally stealing glances at one another in hopes of enjoying a brief moment of human contact that the director might not notice.
If the director notices such a thing, she will most certainly fire off an email. Often they say things like, “Scene 2: Where’s the energy? This sucks.” Or, “You’re embarrassing me. A third of the audience can only see one side of your face.”
Useful notes, all. If we explain our choices she becomes passive-aggressively dismissive of our thoughts, telling us that if we want to ruin her play, that’s up to us. We’re the ones on stage.
The really sad thing is that we’re all relieved when this happens. It’s the closest we ever get in this theater to anything that might be called drama.
Off-Ramp commentator Dylan Brody is a storyteller and humorist with a website and a new novel, Laughs Last.
5th graders know what love is, tell commentator Hank Rosenfeld
To me, love is stubbing out a menthol cigarette in a cup of coffee, an empty bottle of whiskey by the side of the road, a shuttered motel in 29 Palms. That’s why I loved my job at a Santa Monica elementary school. The 5th graders there kept me sane when Valentine’s Day approaches. They don’t have those kind of memories … yet.
I ask Krshna, "What’s your definition of love?" Without blinking, he says, "The definition of love is me liking Sophie." Not "a" definition or "one" definition, but "the definition." It’s crystal clear.
5th graders have lots of crushes. Not that they are all as willing as Krshna to talk about them. And of course they’re too young to understand what Strindberg called "the inevitably primal confrontation between men and women." They’re too busy playing. They’re 10 or 11 years old, running around with their shoes untied. And my job is to help them with their poems that go, "Love is like a hot fudge sundae."
When Amy tells me quietly, "Love is a strong thing. It’s when two people really care about each other," I think of that quote about love from Martin Buber. He called it "a vague instinctual overwhelming feeling."
If the girls are a little quieter, the boys who want to talk really want to talk. Noah and Vincent grab the mike and basically start doing a radio show.
Noah: Valentines isn’t about who’s the coolest, the hottest. It’s about who you love, right, Vincent?
Vincent: Right. You have to spend time with your girlfriend or your loved ones and you have to just realize how beautiful Valentine’s is.
Noah: I mean if you don't have Valentine’s Day, if you’re married, how will you ever say to that special person “I love you?”
Wasn’t it Blake who said, "we’re all here to bear the beams of love?" That may seem a bit above the pay grade of an average adult, but children send out those beams without even trying. Krshna, before he went back to class, left me with this. "Love is a real right thing and I think everyone needs love to feel happy and stuff like that. And I hope Sophie becomes my girlfriend, and I hope you find love Mr. Hank."
O Krshna, I don't think there’s anything in that grab bag for Mr Hank. I was in one relationship for six years. We used to break up every Valentine’s Day. We’d get back together around Easter or Passover; something to do with resurrection, or guilt.
But the 5th graders are studying the circulatory system right now, and in the standard California science book, it says that the heart is actually hollow. But when it gets to beating and rhythmically pumping the blood around the body, well, it feels alive.
See what it takes to dismantle the Crystal Cathedral's massive pipe organ
The pipe organ in the former Crystal Cathedral in Orange County — now a Catholic Church called Christ Cathedral — is undergoing a restoration: The organ, one of the largest of its kind in the world, is being dismantled, and parts of it will be shipped to Italy to be cleaned, repaired and restored.
Overhaul of the organ is part of the renovations to the cathedral, which Orange County televangelist Robert Schuller and his ministries sold in 2012 after emerging from their financial troubles. New pews are being installed, repairs are being made, and saints are being put up.
After 30 years of being played, the organ was in disrepair. To give it the overhaul it needs, all of the pipes are being removed and cleaned individually. Some of them will be shipped half way across the world. (You can see Maya Sugarman's photos of the dismantling in the slideshow above and on KPCC's AudioVision blog.)
Known as the Hazel Wright Organ, it's actually a combination of two instruments: a smaller organ that was originally a part of Schuller's Garden Grove Community Church, next door to the cathedral, and a larger pipe organ from the Lincoln Center. When the building was completed in the early 1980s, Schuller's ministries purchased and combined the two.
Brian Sawyers is the organ's curator; he worked with Schuller's organization and is staying on with the Orange Archdiocese to maintain the organ. He said the organ is a triumph of art and engineering. "It does Baroque very well, it does Romantic music exceptionally well," he said. "It is designed to cover all the bases."
Decades of sun exposure, humidity and damage from other elements have taken its toll on the organ. Piero Ruffati — who works for Frattelli Ruffati, the organ company who helped install the organ the first time — said the organ was put through a lot in its time at the cathedral. "At Christmastime and Eastertime, they had these shows. And they produced artificial fog," said Ruffati. "They put the building in a situation that was not very good for the organ."
A little under half the pipes are to go back to Italy with Ruffati, where they can be cleaned, repaired and even replaced. Restoration on the pipe organ should be complete in two years.
View more photos at KPCC's AudioVision
Voluptua — TV love goddess's reign lasted less than 2 months
UPDATE 1/4/2013: We just learned that Gloria Pall died on December 30. RH Greene filed this piece for Off-Ramp's Valentines Day episode in 2011.
RH Greene tells us about Voluptua, a short-lived 1950s local tv sensation, branded "Corruptua" by Christian protest groups.